Entities typically generate and use data that is important in some way to their operations. This data can include, for example, business data, financial data, and personnel data. Accordingly, entities typically back up their important data so as to create a backup that can later be used in a data restore process if necessary. In some cases, entities use an off-premises platform, such as a cloud storage platform, for storage of the backup data. Processes such as reading, writing, and searching can be performed with respect to the stored backup data, and these processes may involve the use of a client agent, and a metadata server (MDS) which can serve as a namespace provider for the system such that all file system operations are satisfied by a request from the client agent to the MDS.
While arrangements such as the client agent/MDS arrangement noted above have proven satisfactory in some regards, problems nonetheless remain. For example, processing a file system request typically incurs a ‘roundtrip’ between the client agent that generates the file system request and the MDS which services the file system request, since the client agent and MDS may be geographically separated from each other. This roundtrip often accounts for the majority of the latency perceived at the client side for a given file system request.
In light of the perceived latency problem, what is needed is an architecture that may provide for a reduction in the latency of metadata operations perceived by the client agent, on a per metadata operation basis, but which also maintains correctness in the file system.